Quarterdeck is a free quarterly e-journal-edited by George Jepson-for fans of historical fiction and covering news from McBooks Press and all other publishers, authors, and artists. Click here to see the latest issue, back issues, or to subscribe.

That dashing British privateer Nicholas Fallon is back again, helping himself to a fistful of mayhem in The Black Ring.

The year is 1798. The African slave trade is in brutal flower, and the great powers are fighting for control of the Caribbean’s immensely profitable sugar plantations.

Nico, meanwhile, has been trying his damnedest to become a salt merchant under Ezra Somers, father of the beautiful Elinore. But when an urgent request arrives from Admiral Davies of the Leeward Island Station, Ezra and Elinore give Nico their blessing to head off in search of plunder and adventure.
Sailing aboard the American-built topsail schooner Rascal, Nico takes on the job of slipping a secret agent into Cuba, but soon becomes entangled in numerous dangers—or opportunities, as he likes to call them. There’s an escaped slave trying to burn every stalk of sugarcane in Cuba, a pirate running riot with a flotilla of “little wolves,” an admiral’s lady that needs a bit of rescuing, and a French plot that threatens Britain’s very presence in the islands.
Bill Westbrook’s follow-up to The Bermuda Privateer is buoyed by details of history and seamanship that will delight any fan of saltwater yarns and explosive action.